University Beach

Corpus Bay was formed by large-scale fluctuations in sea level associated with repeated advance and retreat of continental ice sheets during the Quaternary Period. The Corpus Christi area is located in the South Texas Coastal Plain Province and is predominantly composed of Pleistocene fluvial and deltaic sediments of the Beaumont Formation. Price (1958), White et al. (1983), Morton and Paine (1984), and Shideler (1986a, 1986b) describe the geologic history, geomorphology, and sediments of the Corpus Christi Bay area. Eroding Pleistocene clay bluffs surround the bay on the majority of the southern, western, and northern shorelines. The shallow bay has an elevated nearshore periphery primarily composed of fine sand with a median grain size diameter of 0.13 to 0.25 mm (White et al. 1983). Longshore sandbars ring the bay, particularly along the southeast and eastern shorelines. Bay-center sediments are composed of fine silt and mud with a median grain size diameter ranging from 0.002 to 0.008 mm.

Ward Island is a remnant of the Nueces River/Oso Creek deltaic complex. The fluvial-deltaic-estuarine deposits present in a core taken on the southeastern side of Ward Island indicate that the island has undergone multiple transgressive regressive sequences (Shideler, 1986a). The top 14 ft of recent sediments is predominately clayey-silt and silty clay. These clay deposits are covered with a thin surface layer of Recent, medium sand indicating a transgressive fluvial-estuarine sequence. These recent sediments are deposited on fluvial and marine deposits of the Beaumont and underlying Lissie Formations.

Two distinct land masses border Ward Island (See image) (Shideler 1986a). To the west lies the Corpus Christi mainland, which is composed of fluvial and deltaic clay deposits of the Pleistocene Beaumont Formation. In contrast, the Encinal Peninsula, a surface expression of the Ingleside sand body, also of the Beaumont Formation, lies to the east. Evidence suggests that the Encinal Peninsula was once a barrier island much like Padre Island. Naval Air Station-Corpus Christi (NAS-CC) presently occupies the entire northern shoreline of the Encinal Peninsula.